^ On
an 18 January:2005
Zhou Sunqin, 17, Zhou Sunlin, 19, Wei Wu, 19, Lin Xiong, 34, Chen Qin'ai,
37, Lin Zhong, 38, Lin Bin, 39, and Lin Qiang, 39, construction workers
from the Pingtan district of Fujian province, China, are videotaped [image >]
after being abducted in Iraq by the “Movement of the Islamic Resistance
Nuamaan Brigade”. The Chinese were traveling to Jordan after having
worked on the rebuilding of a plant in Najaf, Iraq. They would be again
videotaped on 22 January 2005 by their captors, seeming to release them
unharmed, but at an undisclosed location.2002 John
J. Geoghan, 66, Catholic priest who was secularized in 1998 is found guilty
of indecent assault and battery for sliding his hand up the back of a 9-
or 10-year-old boy's legs and into his swimsuit, squeezing his buttocks
at a Boston suburban pool in late 1991. On 21 February 2002 Geoghan is sentenced
to the maximum 9-to-10 years in prison. The judge cites Geoghan's admissions
of molesting other children and psychological evaluations of his lack of
concern for his victims and his tendency to blame them for his acts as evidence
that he is not a candidate for rehabilitation. The judge orders strict monitoring
after any release on parole (possible after 6 years). This is Geoghan first
criminal trial and there are two more pending, and 84 civil suits against
him and the archdiocese The Archdiocese of Boston has already settled about
50 lawsuits against Geoghan for a total of more than $10 million. Geoghan
pedophilia goes back to soon after his ordination in 1962 and was known
to church authorities by 1980 or earlier.

^2001 Clinton's farewell address. My fellow citizens, tonight
is my last opportunity to speak to you from the Oval Office as your
president. I am profoundly grateful
to you for twice giving me the honor to serve, to work for you and
with you to prepare our nation for the 21st century. And I'm grateful
to Vice President Gore, to my Cabinet secretaries, and to all those
who have served with me for the last eight years.
This has been a time of dramatic transformation, and you have risen
to every new challenge. You have made our social fabric stronger,
our families healthier and safer, our people more prosperous.
You, the American people, have made
our passage into the global information age an era of great American
renewal. In all the work I have
done as president, every decision I have made, every executive action
I have taken, every bill I have proposed and signed, I've tried to
give all Americans the tools and conditions to build the future of
our dreams, in a good society, with a strong economy, a cleaner environment,
and a freer, safer, more prosperous world.
I have steered my course by our enduring values. Opportunity for all.
Responsibility from all. A community of all Americans. I have sought
to give America a new kind of government, smaller, more modern, more
effective, full of ideas and policies appropriate to this new time,
always putting people first, always focusing on the future.
Working together, America has done
well. Our economy is breaking records, with more than 22 million new
jobs, the lowest unemployment in 30 years, the highest home ownership
ever, the longest expansion in history.
Our families and communities are stronger. Thirty-five million Americans
have used the family leave law. Eight million have moved off welfare.
Crime is at a 25-year low. Over 10 million Americans receive more
college aid, and more people than ever are going to college. Our schools
are better — higher standards, greater accountability and larger
investments have brought higher test scores, and higher graduation
rates. More than three million
children have health insurance now, and more than 7 million Americans
have been lifted out of poverty. Incomes are rising across the board.
Our air and water are cleaner. Our food and drinking water are safer.
And more of our precious land has been preserved, in the continental
United States, than at any time in 100 years.
America has been a force for peace and prosperity in every corner
of the globe. I'm very grateful
to be able to turn over the reins of leadership to a new president,
with America in such a strong position to meet the challenges of the
future. Tonight, I want to leave
you with three thoughts about our future. First, America must maintain
our record of fiscal responsibility. Through our last four budgets,
we've turned record deficits to record surpluses, and we've been able
to pay down $600 billion of our national debt, on track to be debt
free by the end of the decade for the first time since 1835.
Staying on that course will bring lower
interest rates, greater prosperity and the opportunity to meet our
big challenges. If we choose wisely, we can pay down the debt, deal
with the retirement of the baby boomers, invest more in our future
and provide tax relief. Second,
because the world is more connected every day in every way, America's
security and prosperity require us to continue to lead in the world.
At this remarkable moment in history, more people live in freedom
that ever before. Our alliances are stronger than ever. People all
around the world look to America to be a force for peace and prosperity,
freedom and security. The global economy is giving more of our own
people, and billions around the world, the chance to work and live
and raise their families with dignity.
But the forces of integration that have created these good opportunities
also make us more subject to global forces of destruction, to terrorism,
organized crime and narco-trafficking, the spread of deadly weapons
and disease, the degradation of the global environment.
The expansion of trade hasn't fully closed the gap between those of
us who live on the cutting edge of the global economy and the billions
around the world who live on the knife's edge of survival. This global
gap requires more than compassion. It requires action. Global poverty
is a powder keg that could be ignited by our indifference.
In his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson warned of entangling
alliances. But in our times, America cannot and must not disentangle
itself from the world. If we want the world to embody our shared values,
then we must assume a shared responsibility.
If the wars of the 20th century, especially the recent ones in Kosovo
and Bosnia, have taught us anything, it is that we achieve our aims
by defending our values and leading the forces of freedom and peace.
We must embrace boldly and resolutely that duty to lead, to stand
with our allies in word and deed, and to put a human face on the global
economy so that expanded trade benefits all people in all nations,
lifting lives and hopes all across the world.
Third, we must remember that America cannot lead in the world unless
here at home we weave the threads of our coat of many colors into
the fabric of one America. As webecome ever more diverse, we must
work harder to unite around our common values and our common humanity.
We must work harder to overcome our
differences. In our hearts and in our laws, we must treat all our
people with fairness and dignity, regardless of their race, religion,
gender or sexual orientation and regardless of when they arrived in
our country, always moving toward the more perfect union of our founders'
dreams. Hillary, Chelsea and
I join all Americans in wishing our very best to the next president,
George W. Bush, to his family and his administration in meeting these
challenges and in leading freedom's march in this new century.
As for me, I'll leave the presidency
more idealistic, more full of hope than the day I arrived and more
confident than ever that America's best days lie ahead.
My days in this office are nearly through, but my days of service,
I hope, are not. In the years ahead, I will never hold a position
higher or a covenant more sacred than that of president of the United
States. But there is no title I will wear more proudly than that of
citizen. Thank you. God bless
you, and God bless America.

Mon. 990118 (1) With President Bill Clinton's
Senate impeachment trial set to resume Jan. 19, the White House
plans an addition to its defense team: three House
Democrats who would attack the impeachment process as unfair to
the president. Administration sources say Judiciary Committee Democrats
John Conyers of Michigan, Thomas Barrett of Wisconsin and Rick Boucher
of Virginia are being asked to prepare presentations for the impeachment
trial. The administration's goal in adding the three Democrats is
to solidify Democratic support and build a case there will never
be the two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict and remove Clinton
from office.

(2) White House lawyers continue to refine their presentations.
White House Counsel Charles Ruff will lead off on Jan. 19. Clinton's
team will get 24 hours over Jan. 19, 20 and 21 to make the case
why senators should acquit the president of charges he lied under
oath and obstructed justice in trying to conceal his sexual relationship
with ex-White House intern Monica Lewinsky. After Clinton's team
completes its opening statement, senators will have two days on
Jan. 22 and 23 to question the House prosecutors and Clinton's lawyers.
The process will be unusual: written questions only, via Chief Justice
William Rehnquist, who is presiding over the trial. The proceedings
will reach a critical juncture on Monday, January 25, when there
could be a decision on a motion to dismiss the charges and, if that
fails, a decision on whether to call witnesses. That remains a key
point of contention, with House prosecutors pushing for witnesses
and Clinton's defenders saying that calling witnesses could cause
the trial to extend into May or June.

(3) Two House Republicans will deliver the GOP response
to President Clinton's State of the Union address. Rep.
Jennifer Dunn of Washington will focus on tax relief and Social
Security reform. Rep. Steve Largent of Oklahoma will discuss education
and national defense."We both are family people," Dunn says between
rehearsals today, adding that she will refer to her children in
the address. Dunn: The loyal opposition "Steve's been a famous football
player, I'm a single mother. We're an example of the diversity that
we want to see in our party." While she may refer indirectly to
the Senate impeachment trial, Dunn says, she mostly wants to send
messages of optimism and reassurance about the GOP agenda. "We need
to get the work done," she says. "The reason we're sent back here
is to work across the aisle to solve problems." Dunn and Largent
will speak outdoors, from a balcony of the Cannon House Office Building.
The brightly lit Capitol will be visible in the darkness behind
them. "The hardest part of the whole thing is winnowing it down,"
Dunn says. "It's very tough to write a speech for seven minutes."

1996 Russian President Boris Yeltsin announces that 82
hostages were freed when his forces wiped out Chechen fighters in Pervomayskaya,
ending a weeklong standoff; however, he says that 18 other hostages were
missing.1995 A network of caves is discovered near
the town of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in southern France. The caves contain paintings
and engravings that were 17'000 to 20'000 years old.1993
Martin Luther King Jr holiday observed in all 50 states of the US for first
time. 1991 US acknowledges CIA and US Army paid
Noriega $320,000 over his career.1991 Round-the-clock
bombing of Iraqi targets continues in Operation Desert Storm.1991
Financially strapped Eastern Airlines shut down after 62 years in business. 1991 Iraq launches SCUD missiles against Israel 1990 A jury in Los Angeles acquits former preschool operators
Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, of 52 child molestation
charges.

^1990 DC mayor arrested on drug charges.
At the end of a joint sting operation
by FBI agents and District of Columbia police, Mayor Marion Barry
is arrested and charged with drug possession and the use of crack,
a crystalline form of cocaine. At the Vista International Hotel in
downtown Washington, Barry was caught smoking the substance on camera
with Rahsheeda Moore, a woman who had agreed to set up Barry in exchange
for a reduced sentence in an earlier drug conviction. On September
28, 1991, he is sentenced to six months in prison for possession of
crack cocaine. After serving
his sentence, Barry, claiming to have overcome his "personal adversities,"
reenters D.C. politics and is elected to the city council before once
again winning the mayoral election in 1994 for an unprecedented fourth
term. In 1997, Barry, often accused of corruption, is stripped of
much of his power by Congress, which passes legislation to end "home
rule" in the District, returning the city to the pre-1974 system of
administration by federal-appointed commissioners. In January of 1999,
Barry retires and is succeeded by Anthony A. Williams as mayor of
the nation's capital.

^1985 US walks out of World Court case.
For the first time since joining the
World Court in 1946, the United States walks out of a case. The case
that caused the dramatic walkout concerned US paramilitary activities
against the Nicaraguan government. For the Reagan administration,
efforts to undermine the Sandinista government in Nicaragua had been
a keystone of its anticommunist foreign policy since it took office
in 1981. Policies designed to economically and diplomatically isolate
the Nicaraguan government were combined with monetary and material
aid to the "Contras," a paramilitary anti-Sandinista force that carried
out armed attacks against the Sandinistas. Although some of these
US efforts were public knowledge, others were covert and remained
hidden from public view. Charging that the Nicaraguan government was
receiving weapons from the communist bloc and was using those arms
to aid revolutions elsewhere in Central America, the Reagan administration
even resorted to mining Nicaragua's harbors. Infuriated by these acts,
the Nicaraguan government appeared before the World Court and asked
that orders be issued to the United States to cease the hostile activity
and pay reparations for the damage.
On 18 January 1985, the United States walks out of the World Court,
charging that the case was a "misuse of the court for political and
propaganda purposes." A State Department spokesperson stated that,
"We profoundly hope that court does not go the way of other international
organizations that have become politicized against the interests of
the Western democracies." Opponents of the Reagan policies roundly
condemned the decision to walk out. Congressman Michael Barnes stated
that he was "shocked and saddened that the Reagan Administration has
so little confidence in its own policies that it chooses not even
to defend them." The Reagan administration's decision in regards to
the World Court had little impact on the continuing conflict in Central
America. The Court heard Nicaragua's case and decided against the
United States; it charged that the US violated international law with
its actions against the Sandinistas, and ordered it to pay reparations
to Nicaragua in June 1986. The US government ignored the decision.
Meanwhile, the Contra actions in Nicaragua achieved little more than
death and destruction, and Congress banned further US military aid
to the Contras in 1988.

^1971 Anti-Vietnam-War presidential campaign
begins. In a
televised speech, Senator George S. McGovern (D-South Dakota) begins
his antiwar campaign for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination
by vowing to bring home all US soldiers from Vietnam if he is elected.
McGovern won his party's nomination, but was defeated in the general
election by incumbent Richard Nixon. With only 55% of the electorate
voting, the lowest turnout since 1948, Nixon carried all states but
Massachusetts, taking 97% of the electoral votes. During the campaign,
Nixon pledged to secure "peace with honor" in Vietnam. Aided by the
potential for a peace agreement in the ongoing Paris negotiations
and the upswing in the US economy, Nixon easily defeated McGovern,
an outspoken dove whose party was divided over several issues, including
McGovern's views on the war, which would only later become generally
recognized as correct. McGovern said during the campaign, "If
I were president, it would take me 24 hours and the stroke of a pen
to terminate all military operations in Southeast Asia." He further
stated that he would withdraw all US troops within 90 days of taking
office, whether or not US POWs were released. To many US voters at
the time, including a large number of Democrats, McGovern's position
was tantamount to total capitulation in Southeast Asia.

1969 Expanded 4-party Vietnam peace talks began in Paris
1967 Yellowknife replaces Ottawa as capital of
NW Territories, Canada.1967 In Cambridge MA, Albert
DeSalvo, who claims to be the "Boston Strangler," is convicted
of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses. He would sentenced to life in
prison and killed in 1973 by a fellow inmate.

^1966 First African-American US cabinet member
assumes office.
Robert Clifton Weaver is sworn in as head of the newly created Department
of Housing and Urban Development, becoming the first African-American
to hold a post in the presidential cabinet. Born in Washington, D.C.,
Weaver served as an advisor to the secretary of the interior during
the 1930s, and during World War II, held several offices concerned
with mobilizing the African American labor force. During the 1950s,
he served as rent commissioner for the State of New York, and in 1961,
was appointed as an administrator of the Housing and Home Finance
Agency. In 1965, as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society,"
the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was created
to oversee the diversion of federal funds toward the development of
America's poorest urban areas, commonly known as the "inner city."
On January 13, 1966, Weaver was nominated the first HUD secretary
and, following his confirmation by the US Congress, assumed office
on 18 January. In 1968, he left his cabinet post upon Johnson's retirement
from the presidency, and became the president of Baruch College in
1969, and a professor of Urban Affairs at Hunter College in 1970,
both senior colleges of the City University of New York.

1964 Tras el alzamiento revolucionario, se proclama la
República de Zanzíbar.1962 US begins spraying foliage
in Vietnam to reveal Viet Cong guerrillas. 1961
Zanzibar's Afro-Shirazi party wins the general elections to Parliament by
a single seat, after winning the seat of Chake-Chake on Pemba Island by
a single vote. 1960 US and Japan sign joint defense
treaty. 1957 3 B-52's set record for around-the-world
flight, 45 hours 19 minutes 1956 German Democratic
Republic forms own army (National People's Army) 1954
Amintore Fanfani forms Italian government. 1951
Hermann Flake sentenced to death due to "hate campaign against German Democratic
Republic".1950 The People's Republic of China extends
diplomatic recognition to the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam,
which the Soviet Union would recognize Hanoi on 30 January 1950. China and
the Soviet Union provided massive military and economic aid to North Vietnam,
which enabled North Vietnam to fight first the French and then the US. Chinese
aid to North Vietnam between 1950 and 1970 is estimated at $20 billion.
It is thought that China provided approximately three-quarters of the total
military aid given to Hanoi since 1949, with the Soviets providing most
of the rest. It would have been impossible for the North Vietnamese to continue
the war without the aid from both the Chinese and Soviets. 1949
Se crea el Consejo de Asistencia Económica Mutua (COMECON).1946
Se constituye en México el Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), antes
llamado Partido de la Revolución Mexicana (PRM). 1944
First Chinese naturalized US citizen since repeal of exclusion acts 1943 Soviets announce they broke the long Nazi siege
of Leningrad.

^1943 Nazis enter the Warsaw
ghetto to ship Jews to Treblinka.
There is surprising armed resistance by the underground Jewish Combat
Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa; ZOB) commanded by Mordecai
Anielewicz [1919 – 08 May 1943] and armed mainly with pistols
and grenades. Street fighting went on for four days, leaving about
50 Germans — and all of the ZOB defenders except Anielewicz
himself — dead, but affording ZOB an opportunity to seize some
German arms. The Germans withdrew and for two months tried various
deceptions to persuade the ghetto's remaining Jews to go peacefully
to the boxcars. Anielewicz had effectively become the commander of
the ghetto as well as the ZOB, and he pushed defensive preparations
until SS chief Heinrich Himmler launched a special Aktion
to clear the ghetto with 2000 troops and tanks on 19 April, in honor
of the birth day of Hitler [20 Apr 1889 – 30 Apr 1945].
The deportation of Jews from the Warsaw
ghetto to the concentration camp at Treblinka is resumed, but not
without much bloodshed and resistance along the way. On 18 July 1942,
Heinrich Himmler promoted Auschwitz camp commandant Rudolf Hess to
SS major. He also ordered that the Warsaw ghetto, the Jewish quarter
constructed by the Nazis upon the occupation of Poland and enclosed
first by barbed wire and then by brick walls, be depopulated-a "total
cleansing," as he described it. The inhabitants were to be transported
to what became a second extermination camp constructed at the railway
village of Treblinka, 62 miles northeast of Warsaw. Within the first
seven weeks of Himmler's order, more than 250'000 Jews were taken
to Treblinka by rail and gassed to death, marking the largest single
act of destruction of any population group, Jewish or non-Jewish,
civilian or military, in the war. Upon arrival at "T. II," as this
second camp at Treblinka was called, prisoners were separated by sex,
stripped, and marched into what were described as "bathhouses," but
were in fact gas chambers. T. II's first commandant was Dr. Irmfried
Eberl, age 32, the man who had headed up the euthanasia program of
1940 and had much experience with the gassing of victims, especially
children. He was assisted in his duties by several hundred Ukrainian
and about 1,500 Jewish prisoners, who removed gold teeth from victims
before hauling the bodies to mass graves.
In January 1943, after a four-month hiatus, the deportations started
up again. A German SS unit entered the ghetto and began rounding up
its denizens-but they did not go without a fight. Six hundred Jews
were killed in the streets as they struggled with the Germans. Rebels
with smuggled firearms opened fire on the SS troops. The Germans returned
fire-machine-gun fire against the Jews' pistol shots. Nine Jewish
rebels fell-as did several Germans. The fighting continued for days,
with the Jews refusing to surrender and even taking arms from their
Germans persecutors in surprise attacks. Amazingly, the Germans withdrew
from the ghetto in the face of the unexpected resistance. They likely
did not realize how few armed resisters there were, but the fact that
resistance was given at all intimidated them. But there was no happy
ending. Before this new incursion into the ghetto was over, 6000 more
Jews were transported to their likely deaths at Treblinka.

1943 The US has to make do with the greatest thing
since sliced bread as commercial bakers stop selling sliced bread
until the 1945 end of World War II.

^1919 World War I peace conference begins The international peace conference
seeking a formal end to World War I opens at Versailles, France, two
months after the termination of the massive conflict. The chief negotiators
at the conference are the leaders of the four major Allied powers:
Prime Minister Lloyd George of Great Britain, Premier Georges Clemenceau
of France, Premier Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy, and President
Woodrow Wilson of the United States. In 1918, it was the fair terms
of President Wilson's peace proposal that helped encourage the leaders
of the Central Powers to agree to an armistice ending the war. His
"Fourteen Points" called for unselfish peace terms from the victorious
Allies, the restoration of territories conquered during the war, the
right to national self-determination, and the establishment of a postwar
world body to resolve future conflict. At Versailles, Wilson tries
to orchestrate a just and lasting peace but the other victorious Allies
oppose the majority of Wilson's peace terms. The final treaty, signed
in July of 1919, calls for stiff reparations payment from the former
Central Powers and other demanding terms that contribute to the outbreak
of World War II two decades later. However, the creation of states
based on Wilson's principle of national self-determination and the
formation of the League of Nations are embodied in the treaty, although
opposition to the League of Nations in the US Senate prevents America
from ever entering the international organization.

^1912 Scott reaches the South Pole, but is not
first. After
a two-month ordeal, the expedition of British explorer Robert Falcon
Scott and his expedition arrive at the South Pole only to find that
Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, had preceded them on 14 December
1911. Scott, a British naval officer, began his first Antarctic expedition
in 1901 aboard the Discovery. During three years of exploration, Scott
discovered the Edward VII Peninsula, surveyed the coast of Victoria
Land, and led limited expeditions into the continent itself. In 1910,
he traveled to Antarctica again in search of the South Pole, and in
November of 1911, started southward on foot from a British base on
the Ross Sea toward the Pole. Scott and his four companions pulled
their heavy sleds by hand across the high polar plateau, proceeding
in sub-zero weather the entire way. Midway into their journey, unbeknownst
to the British explorers, Amundsen had reached the South Pole region
using dog sleds that averaged 24 km a day.
Scott and his companions reach the Pole on this day, and disappointed
to find that they had been beaten by Amundsen, prepare for the long,
difficult journey home. On their retreat back to base, the expedition
would be beset by lack of food, illness, frostbite, blizzards, and
cold so much severe than expectations that the snow and ice lost it
slipperiness under the sledges. All five members would die; the last
three overwhelmed by a blizzard only a few kilometers from their base.
Their bodies would later be recovered, together with a diary written
by Scott documenting the disastrous expedition. Scott wrote his last
diary entry on 29 March 1912, knowing that he was only 18 km from
his destination and that he would never reach it.

1911 The first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place
as pilot Eugene B. Ely flew onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania
in San Francisco harbor (from Tanforan Park). 1905
French government of Combes falls 1901 Pope
Leo XIII publishes encyclical
Graves De Communi Re on Christian democracy.
1896 British troops occupy Kumasi, West Africa.1896
First X-Ray Demonstration in the United States: The X-ray was demonstrated
to the American public for the first time in New York City's Casino Chambers
on this day in 1896. Viewers paid twenty-five cents apiece to see the exhibit.1896 H.J. Kallenberg, an instructor of physical education
at the University of Iowa,
welcomed Amos
Alonzo Stagg, athletic director at the recently founded University
of Chicago, to Iowa
City for an experimental game in a new sport. The contest, refereed
by Kallenberg, was the first
college basketball game played with five players on each side. The University
of Chicago won by a score of 15 to 12.

^1854 Lower California and Sonora proclaimed
an independent republic by Filibuster William Walker,
29. Lack of supplies and Mexican
resistance would force him back to the United States in May 1854.
That was not the end of his adventures, which are well worth reading
about. He was president of Nicaragua from 18560712 to 18570501. His
undoing was that he tried to seize a company owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Later he tried to invade through Honduras, was captured by the British
(who were occupying the coast of Honduras, but that is another colonialist
story...) and on 18600912 executed by the Hondurans.

1850 British blockade Piræus, Greece to enforce mercantile
claims 1817 San Martin leads a revolutionary army
over Andes

^1803 Jefferson requests funds for Lewis and
Clark Determined
to begin theUS exploration of the vast mysterious regions of the Far
West, President Thomas Jefferson sends a special confidential message
to Congress asking for money to fund the journey of Lewis and Clark.
Jefferson had been trying to mount a western expedition of exploration
since the 1790s, and his determination to do so had only grown since
he became president in 1801. In summer 1802, Jefferson began actively
preparing for the mission, recruiting his young personal secretary,
Meriwether Lewis, to be its leader. Throughout 1802, Jefferson and
Lewis discussed the proposed mission, telling no one  not even
Congress, which would have to approve the funds  of what they
were contemplating. Jefferson directed Lewis to draw up an estimate
of expenses. Basing his calculations on a party of one officer and
10 enlisted men  the number was deliberately kept small to avoid
inspiring both congressional criticisms and Indian fears of invasion
 Lewis carefully added up the costs for provisions, weapons,
gunpowder, scientific instruments, and a large boat. The final tally
came to $2500. The largest item was $696, earmarked for gifts to Indians.
Following the advice of his secretary of the treasury, Albert Gallatin,
Jefferson decided not to include
the request in his general proposed annual budget, since it involved
exploration outside of the nation's own territory. Instead, on 18
January 1803, he sent a special secret message to Congress asking
for the money, taking pains to stress that the proposed exploration
would be an aid to US commerce. Jefferson noted that the Indians along
the proposed route of exploration up the Missouri River "furnish a
great supply of furs & pelts to the trade of another nation carried
on in a high latitude." If a route into this territory existed, "possibly
with a single portage, from the Western ocean," Jefferson suggested
that the US might have a superior means of exploiting the fur trade.
Though carefully couched in diplomatic language, Jefferson's message
to Congress was clear: a US expedition might be able to steal the
fur trade from the British and find the long hoped-for Northwest passage
to the Pacific. Despite some
mild resistance from Federalists who never saw any point in spending
money on the West, Jefferson's carefully worded request prevailed,
and Congress approved the $2500 appropriation by a sizeable margin.
It no doubt seemed trivial in comparison to the $9'375'000 they had
approved a week earlier for the Louisiana Purchase, which brought
much of the territory Jefferson was proposing to explore under US
control. With financing now assured, Lewis immediately began preparing
for the expedition. Recruiting his old military friend, William Clark,
to be his co-captain, the Corps of Discovery departed on their epic
exploration of the uncharted regions in spring 1804. —
History
of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to
the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and
Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean,
Volume 1 _ Volume
2 _ [page images] _ by Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Nicholas
Biddle

^1788 First sadistic Australian penal colony
established
The first 736 convicts banished from England to Australia landed in
Botany Bay. Over the next 60 years, approximately 50'000 criminals
were transported from Great Britain to the "land down under," in one
of the strangest episodes in criminal-justice history. The accepted
wisdom of the upper and ruling classes in 18th century England was
that criminals were inherently defective. Thus, they could not be
rehabilitated and simply required separation from the genetically
pure and law-abiding citizens. Accordingly, lawbreakers had to be
either killed or exiled, since prisons were too expensive. With the
American victory in the Revolutionary War, transgressors could no
longer be shipped off across the Atlantic, and the English looked
for a colony in the other direction.
Captain Arthur Phillip, a tough but exceedingly fair career naval
officer, was charged with setting up the first penal colony in Australia.
The convicts were chained beneath the deck during the entire hellish
six-month voyage. The first voyage claimed the lives of nearly 10
percent of the prisoners, which remarkably proved to be a rather good
rate. On later trips, up to a third of the unwilling passengers died
on the way. These were not hardened criminals by any measure; only
a small minority were transported for violent offenses. Among the
first group was a 70-year-old woman who had stolen cheese to eat.
Although not confined behind
bars, most convicts in Australia had an extremely tough life. The
guards who volunteered for duty in Australia seemed to be driven by
exceptional sadism. Even small violations of the rules could result
in a punishment of 100 lashes by the cat o'nine tails. It was said
that blood was usually drawn after five lashes and convicts ended
up walking home in boots filled with their own blood  that is,
if they were able to walk. Convicts who attempted to escape were sent
to tiny Norfolk Island, 1000 km east of Australia, where the conditions
were even more inhumane. The only hope of escape from the horror of
Norfolk Island was a "game" in which groups of three prisoners drew
straws. The short straw was killed as painlessly as possible and the
other two were shipped back to Sydney (where the only Australian court
was located) for the trial, one playing the role of killer, the other
as witness.

1778 Captain James Cook stumbles over islands which he
named Sandwich Islands because that was the favorite food of the natives....no,
just kidding,....it was in honor of the Earl of Sandwich (whose favorite
food was... guess what). Those islands are now known as the Hawaiian Islands.1762 El rey Carlos III de España promulga una pragmática
para establecer el regium exequátur, que supone el control de los
documentos pontificios. 1733 first polar bear exhibited
in America (Boston)

2005 The two innocent civilians in the front seats
of a car at which US soldiers of the 2nd Squadron 14th Calvary Regiment
fire as it approaches their checkpoint in Tel Afar, Iraq. Six children riding
in the backseat are physically unhurt. The driver apparently was scared
by the preceding hand signals to stop and the warning shots.2005
Two human rights leaders, shot in the head and chest after being
kidnapped earlier in the day, in Kirkuk, Iraq. Their bodies would be found
the next day.2004 The pilot and all 9 passengers aboard
a Georgian Express plane, a Cessna 208 Caravan, bound for Windsor, Ontario,
which crashes at 05:10 into lake Erie, 2km from it takeoff in icebound Pelee
Island, Ontario.2004 Zafar Iqbal, 22, murdered in
Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, by Pakistani Tariq Mahmood, 39, in a
car driven by Mohammed Jahangir, 23, because, in a secret Muslim wedding
Iqbal had married their cousin, Rizwana Arif, 22, whose family was trying
to force her to marry Mahmood's brother. On 09 November 2004, the murderers
would be sentenced to prison: Mahmood for 19.5 years, Jahangir for 15 years.
— (051105)2004 Iraqi policeman Rasul
Tahir and at least 20 other persons, including suicide pickup truck bomber
with 500 kg of explosives who had pulled to the head of the line of cars
waiting to enter at the main gate check point of the headquarters compound
of the US-led occupation administration of Iraq (the “Coalition Provisional
Authority”) in Baghdad, at 08:00. The dead include Iraqi civilians
and two US civilians. The wounded include 2 US soldiers, 4 civilian employees
of the US, and 22 Iraqi civilians.2002 Arley Arias García,
Catholic pastor of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Florencia,
corregimiento de Samaná (Caldas) Colombia, murdered by gunshot. 2002
Faraj Hani Odeh Nazzal, 21, shot in the head and neck, in the West
Bank. He was a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

^1998: Charity Miranda, 17, suffocated in “exorcism”.
Charity Miranda, a cheerleader, is suffocated
to death with a plastic bag at her home in Sayville, Long Island,
by her mother Vivian, 39, and sister Serena, 20, after an unsuccessful
exorcism to free her of demons. Police found the women chanting and
praying over the prostrate body. Not long before, they had embraced
santeria, a Cuban variation of voodoo. Household rituals frequently
included the sacrifice of cocks, pigeons and goats.[Vivian
Miranda being arrested for murder >].
Charity resisted pressure to join, confessing to friends that she
was horrified by the change in her staid, white, upper-middle-class
mother. In the last week of her life she had flu and lost 4.5kg, which
her mother interpreted as demonic possession. Charity’s sister
Elizabeth told police that Charity had been "consumed by a demon"
for several months and had agreed to the exorcism. In March 1999,
Vivian Miranda was excused a trial on the grounds of insanity. She
will probably spend the rest of her life in a maximum security psychiatric
hospital.
It is not known how many people practise santeria in the US. The first
evidence of its presence was detected in the 1940s among Cuban immigrants
in Brooklyn. The borough is still a santeria stronghold, with a profusion
of private shrines to Chango, the god of thunder, regarded as the
alter ego of Saint Barbara (whose father was struck by lightning as
he beheaded her for her faith).

1997 Paul Efthemios Tsongas, 55, of pneumonia (Senator-D-MA)
rebounded from cancer to briefly become the Democratic front-runner for
president in 1992.1997 Tres cooperantes españoles de la organización
Médicos del Mundo, asesinados por extremistas hutus en la región
ruandesa de Ruhengeri, al noroeste de Kigali. 1991 Eastern
Airlines goes out of business after 62 years 1991
Hamilton Fish Sr., 102, former New York Congressman, in Cold Spring,
N.Y.1988 All 98 passengers and 10 crew members aboard
a China Southwest Airlines Ilyushin 18D, coming from Beijing, which crashes
during its initial approach te Chongqing when it loses control after the
No.4 engine right starter generator became so hot that the feathering oil
tube was burnt and burst upon feathering of the prop, the engine caught
fire and fell off when it burned its pylon, and severe vibrations caused
the no.1 prop to feather.1987 Renato Guttuso, pintor
italiano.1985 Mahmoud Taha, 76, Sudanese
Moslem leader, hanged.1983 Arturo Umberto Illía,
presidente argentino.1980 Cecil Beaton, 76, British
photographer.1969:: 38 persons as a United Airlines
B727-22QC crashes into the ocen near Los Angeles. 1963 Edward
Titchmarsh, 63, mathematician.1960:: 50 persons
as a Capital Airlines Viscount 745D crashes near Charles City, due to engine
failure.1952 Enrique Jardiel Poncela, escritor español.1951 Amy Carmichael who rescued children from slavery at
heathen temples. After an accident left her bedridden, she spent many years
writing inpirational books.

1940
Day 50 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland.
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.Enemy bombers hit icebreaker TarmoLadoga
Karelia: Finnish troops take the barracks area in Pitkäranta, forming
a 'motti' with one flank open onto the frozen Lake Ladoga.
Fresh concentrations of enemy divisions
are observed at Pitkäranta and at Käsnäselkä in the Uomaa sector.
Northern Finland: four Finnish battalions
mount an assault on Märkäjärvi, but the enemy's 122nd Division holds
firm.
Gulf of Finland: Finnish troops begin
to attack a Soviet naval detachment trapped in the ice near the island
of Someri.
Enemy bombers hit the icebreaker Tarmo
while it is undergoing repairs in Kotka harbour. Thirty-nine crew
members are killed and 11 wounded.
Sweden: the Swedish Parliament debates
the question of aid for Finland. Public opinion in Sweden sees the
country's future as closely bound up with the outcome of Finland's
struggle. "Finlands sak är vår" (Finland's cause is our own) is adopted
as the slogan of the popular movement campaigning on behalf of aid
for Finland.
Home news: Doctor of Law Urho Kekkonen
is appointed to head the supply centre for evacuees.
Abroad: Hungarian professor Albert
Szent-Györgyi, winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine, gifts
his Nobel Medal to Finland.

1936
Joseph Rudyard Kipling, English short-story writer,
poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British
imperialism, his tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and
his tales for children. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1907. Kipling was born on
30 December 1865. His father, John Lockwood Kipling, was curator of
the Lahore museum, and is described as such in the first chapter of
Kim,
Rudyard's most famous novel. Much of his childhood was unhappy. Kipling
was taken to England by his parents at the age of six and was left
for five years at a foster home at Southsea, the horrors of which
he described in the story Baa Baa, Black Sheep (1888). He
then went on to an inferior boarding school. It haunted Kipling for
the rest of his lifebut always as the glorious place celebrated
in Stalky
& Co. (1899) and related stories: an unruly paradise
in which the highest goals of English education are met amid a tumult
of teasing, bullying, and beating. The Stalky saga is one of Kipling's
great imaginative achievements. Rudyard
Kipling returned to India in 1882 and worked for seven years as
a journalist.. He was quickly filling the journals he worked for with
prose sketches and light verse. He published the verse collection
Departmental Ditties in 1886, the short-story collection
Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888, and between 1887 and
1889 he brought out six paper-covered volumes of short stories. Among
the latter were Soldiers Three, The
Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories (containing the
story The
Man Who Would Be King), and Wee Willie Winkie (containing
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep).
When Kipling returned to England in 1889, his reputation had preceded
him. His fame was redoubled upon the publication in 1892 of the verse
collection Barrack-Room Ballads, which contained such popular
poems as Mandalay, Gunga Din, and Danny Deever.
In 1892 Kipling married Caroline Balestier, the sister of Wolcott
Balestier, an American publisher and writer with whom he had collaborated
in The Naulahka (1892), a facile and unsuccessful romance.
That year the young couple moved to the United States. The Kiplings
returned to England in 1896.
Besides numerous short-story collections and poetry collections such
as The Seven Seas (1896), Kipling published his best-known
novels in the 1890s and immediately thereafter. His novel The
Light That Failed (1890) is the story of a painter going
blind and spurned by the woman he loves. Captains
Courageous (1897), in spite of its sense of adventure, is
often considered a poor novel because of the excessive descriptive
writing. Kim
(1901), although essentially a children's book, must be considered
a classic. The The Jungle Book (1894) and The
Second Jungle Book (1895) is a stylistically superb collection
of stories linked by poems for children.
In 1902 Kipling bought a house at Burwash, Sussex, which remained
his home until his death. Sussex was the background of much of his
later writingespecially in Puck
of Pook's Hill (1906) and Rewards
and Fairies (1910), two volumes that, although devoted to
simple dramatic presentations of English history, embodied some of
his deepest intuitions. In 1907
Kipling received the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first Englishman
to be so honored. In South Africa, where he spent much time, he was
given a house by Cecil Rhodes, the diamond magnate and South African
statesman. This association fostered Kipling's imperialist persuasions,
which were to grow stronger with the years. In
the whole sweep of his adult storytelling, Kipling displays a steadily
developing art, from the early volumes of short stories set in India
through the collections Life's Handicap (1891), Many
Inventions (1893), The
Day's Work (1898), Traffics and Discoveries (1904),
Actions
and Reactions (1909), Debits and Credits (1926),
and Limits and Renewals (1932). While his later stories cannot
exactly be called better than the earlier ones, they are as goodand
they bring a subtler if less dazzling technical proficiency to the
exploration of deeper though sometimes more perplexing themes. It
is a far cry from the broadly effective eruption of the supernatural
in The Phantom Rickshaw (1888) to its subtle exploitation
in The Wish House or A Madonna of the Trenches (1924),
or from the innocent chauvinism of the bravura The Man Who Was
(1890) to the depth of implication beneath the seemingly insensate
xenophobia of Mary Postgate (1915).
Kipling wrote much and successfully for children; for the very young
in Just
So Stories (1902), and for others in The
Jungle Book and in Puck
of Pook's Hill and Rewards
and Fairies. Of his miscellaneous works, the more notable
are a number of early travel sketches collected in two volumes in
From Sea to Sea (1899) and the unfinished Something of
Myself, posthumously published in 1941, a reticent essay in autobiography.
KIPLING WORKS NOT MENTIONED ABOVE NOR BELOW:
1881 Schoolboy Lyrics. 1887 Soldier Tales, Indian Tales,
and Tales of the Opposite Sex. 1888 The Story of the
Gadsbys, In Black and White. 1890 The Courting of Dinah Shadd
and Other Stories, and The City of Dreadful Night. 1891
Letters of Marque 1892 Rhymed Chapter Headings 1896
Soldier Tales. 1898 An Almanac of Twelve Sports,
and A Fleet in Being. 1900 The Kipling Reader. 1901
War's Brighter Side. 1903 The Five Nations. 1907
Collected Verse. 1911 A History of England. 1912
Songs from Books. 1915 The New Army in Training and
France in War. 1916 Sea Warfare. 1917 A Diversity
of Creatures. 1919 The Graves of the Fallen and The
Years Between. 1920 Horace Odes, Book V and Letters
of Travel. 1923 The Irish Guards in the Great War and
Land and Sea. 1924 Songs for Youth. 1926 Sea
and Sussex. 1927 Songs of the Sea. 1928 A Book
of Words. 1929 Poems 1886-1929. 1930 Thy Servant
A Dog. 1934 Collected Dog Stories.
KIPLING ONLINE:

1996 First Software on DVD. Digital Directory Assistance
announces it will deliver its PhoneDisc PowerFinder USA ONE, an electronic
phone book for the entire United States, on Digital Video Disc (DVD). The
data, which previously required six CD-ROMs for delivery, took up only a
single DVD. 1944 Cassius Clay (changed his name to Muhammad
Ali), boxer who held the heavy-weight title three times; activist.1937 John Hume, político británico.1934
José Manuel Romay Beccaria, político español.1933
Ray Dolby. In 1956, inventor Ray Dolby, working with Charles Ginsbury,
created the first practical videotape recorder, which transformed the television
industry. Videotaped shows quickly replaced almost all live programming,
except for sporting events.1931 Chun Du Huan, presidente
de Corea del Sur.1929 Joaquín Aguirre Bellver, escritor
y periodista español.1919 Bentley Motors Founded
Bentley Motors was established in London, England. A manufacturer of sports
cars and luxury automobiles, Bentley was acquired by Rolls-Royce in November,
1931. From that point forward, the Bentley line acquired more and more features
of the Rolls-Royce, until the two makes became nearly indistinguishable.
1918 Adriano Mandarino Hypólito O.F.M, Aracaju,
Brasil ; (died 960810, obispo emérito de Nova Iguaçu, but what is his claim
to fame???)1915 Santiago Carrillo, político español
y secretario general del PCE. 1908 Bronowski,
mathematician. 1901 Petrovsky,
mathematician.1893 Jorge Guillén, poeta español.

^1892 Norvell “Oliver”
Hardy, US comedian who died on 07 August 1957. He
was “the fat one” of the greatest comedy team in film
history, which he formed with “the thin one”, “Stan
Laurel” [16 Jun 1890 – 23 Feb 1965]. Georgia
attorney Oliver Hardy died while his son, Norvell, was an infant;
in tribute, the younger Hardy later adopted his father's first name.
While managing a movie theater in 1913, Hardy decided that he could
do better, or at least no worse than the actors he saw on-screen,
and so he went to work at the Lubin Studios in Jacksonville, Florida,
the following year. During the next decade, Hardy appeared in more
than 200 films for various studios (including an appearance as the
Tin Man in the 1925 silent version of The Wizard of Oz) before
being signed up in 1926 by the Hal Roach Studios, where Stan Laurel
was working since 1925, primarily as a director and gag writer, rather
than as an actor, which he had been earlier. However
Laurel returned to acting when a last-minute replacement for Hardy
(who had seriously injured himself in a cooking accident) was needed
for a Mabel Normand comedy. The two soon became members of Roach's
“All-Stars,” an ensemble of comic performers featured
in several short comedies. They were frequent costars in the All-Star
Comedies but not yet a team; as producer Roach and director-supervisor
Leo McCarey noticed the chemistry between the thin one (Laurel) and
the fat one (Hardy), Laurel and Hardy started to work together more
often. By the end of 1927, they were an official team. The comedic
formula that they developed was simple but enduring: two friends who
possessed a combination of utter brainlessness and eternal optimism,
or, as Laurel himself described it: “Two minds without a single
thought.” Laurel was the guileless simpleton, the cause of most
of their troubles, whereas Hardy played the self-important, fastidious
man of the world whose plans always went awry due to his misplaced
faith in both his partner and his own abilities. They frequently managed
to convert simple, everyday situations into disastrous tangles by
acts of incredible naïveté and incompetence. The team
attained enormous popularity by the end of the silent era through
comic gems such as Putting Pants on Philip (1927), Two
Tars (1928), Liberty (1928), and Big Business
(1929). The development of motion-picture
sound brought about the full flowering of the team's genius. Their
voices, Laurel's British accent and Hardy's Southern tones, were perfectly
suited to their characters. Hardy developed a vast array of eccentricities:
flowery speech and mannerisms, explosive double takes, tie-twiddling,
and frequent looks into the camera to elicit audience sympathy. First-time
viewers tend to find Hardy the more enduringly funny of the pair.
Laurel and Hardy appeared in more than 40 sound shorts for Roach,
including the classics Hog Wild (1930), Helpmates
(1931), Towed in a Hole (1932), and the Academy Award-winning
The Music Box (1932).
Largely out of economic necessity, the Roach Studios began to star
Laurel and Hardy in feature films. They made their feature debut in
Pardon Us (1931) and went on to star in 13 more features
through 1940. Their best full-length comedies include Fra Diavolo
(1933; also released as The Devil's Brother), Babes in
Toyland (1934, rereleased as March of the Wooden Soldiers),
Our Relations (1936), Block-Heads (1938), A
Chump at Oxford (1940), and the two features generally regarded
as their finest, Sons of the Desert (1933) and Way Out
West (1937). Because of the dwindling market for short subjects,
the team abandoned two-reelers reluctantly in 1935 but remained mostly
contented while at Roach Studios, which as one of the smaller studios
allowed them a greater degree of artistic freedom than they would
have found elsewhere. The importance
of that artistic license became manifest in the 1940s, when Laurel
and Hardy worked for Twentieth Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Denied by those studios the creative input to which they had become
accustomed at Roach, the team's comedy suffered and their films from
the 1940s are regarded as their weakest body of work. They remained
popular, however, with wartime audiences. Their final film was the
European-produced Atoll K (1950), after which they toured
English music halls to great success. They remained an official team
until Hardy's death. Bud Abbott
[02 Oct 1895 – 24 Apr 1974], who formed another famous comedy
pair with Lou Costello [06 Mar 1906 – 03 Mar 1959], once said
of Laurel and Hardy: “They were the funniest comedy team of
all time.” Most critics and film scholars throughout the years
have agreed with that assessment.

1888 Sir Thomas Sopwith, English WW1 aircraft designer
who died on 27 January 1989. His Sopwith Aviation Company produced the Sopwith
Pup and it famous successor the Sopwith
F1 Camel, which, from July 1917, when it reached the Front, until the
11 November 1918 Armistice, downed 1294 enemy planes. 1884
Antoine Pevsner, French artist who died on 12 April 1962.

1882
Alan Alexander Milne,
English author (Winnie-the-Pooh)
The youngest of three sons born to schoolteacher
parents, Milne taught himself to read at age two. He began writing humorous
pieces as a schoolboy and continued to do so at Cambridge, where he edited
the undergraduate paper. In 1903, he left Cambridge and went to London to
write. Although he was broke by the end of his first year, he persevered
and supported himself until 1906 with his writing. That year, he joined
humor magazine Punch as an editor and wrote humorous verse and
essays for the magazine for eight years, until World War I broke out. While
at Punch, he wrote his first bookfor adults, not children, The
Red House Mystery.
In 1913, he married his wife, Daphne, and
two years later went to France to serve in World War I. While in the military,
he wrote three plays, one of which, Mr. Pim Passes By, became a
hit in 1919 and provided financial security for the family. In 1920, the
couple's only son, Christopher Robin, was born. In 1925, the family bought
Cotchford Farm in Sussex. A nearby forest inspired the 100-Acre Wood where
Winnie-the-Pooh's adventures would be set.
Milne published two volumes of the verse
he wrote for his son. When We Were Very Young was published in 1924, followed
by Now We Are Six in 1927. When Christopher Robin was about a year
old, he received a stuffed bear as a present. The child soon accumulated
a collection of similar animals [photo: Pooh, Kanga, Piglet, Eeyor,
Tigger], which inspired Milne to begin writing a series of whimsical
stories about the toys. Winnie-the-Pooh was published in 1926 and
The House at Pooh Corner in 1928. Ernest Shepard illustrated the
books, using Christopher Robin and his animals as models. A.A. Milne wrote
numerous other books and plays but is remembered almost solely for his beloved
children's work. He died on 31 January 1956.

^1854 Thomas A. Watson, telephone
pioneer When Alexander Graham
Bell uttered his famous words, "Watson, come here. I want you," he
was talking to his assistant, Thomas Watson. Watson met Bell while
working in an electrical shop in Boston and worked with Bell on his
telephone experiments. In 1877, when the Bell Telephone Company was
formed, Watson became head of research and technical development.
Watson also answered the first long-distance call in 1915, when Alexander
Graham Bell in New York called Watson in San Francisco. Watson left
Bell in 1881 to found a shipbuilding company, which constructed battleships,
destroyers, and other ships for the government.

1835 César A Cui Vilna Lithuania, fort architect/composer
1815 L.F.K. Tischendorf, German biblical and textual
scholar. In 1844 he discovered one of the oldest and most valuable manuscripts
of the Greek Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus, which dates back to the 4th century.
1813 Joseph Farwell Glidden, US inventor (first
commercial usable barbed wire) who died on 09 October 1906.